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Day: May 30, 2012

Trump is a small man who has big thoughts about himself, a vulgar attentionophile who cares not what damage he causes or whom he might hurt so long as he is in the spotlight. His loud, full-throated (is there any other way for The Donald?) embrace of birtherism is hardly surprising considering truth or consequences have never mattered much to the man George Will accurately described last weekend as a “bloviating ignoramus.”

But, alas, Will got it wrong — or, to be precise, he captured the mere essence of Trump (he’s a buffoon) but failed to properly describe the sheer ugliness of what the reckless, solipsistic clown is wreaking by continuing to espouse his belief that President Barack Obama is not a native-born American.

It’s one thing to boast about how smart and successful and rich he is — Trump does that every day. But to try to tap into the worst instincts of some folks in the GOP base — and, I fear, too many Democrats and independents, too — with his hardly veiled racism consigns Trump to a category of unconscionable scoundrels and power-hungry demagogues who must be denounced, scorned and vilified.

In 2000, Florida was the deciding factor in the Presidential race. Both candidates were neck and neck with the vote tallies. Complaints of voter intimidation by then Secretary of State, Katherine Harris who purged over 170,000 people as “convicted felons”. The actual number of felons on the list was less than 60,0000. This means that 110,000 innocent people (registered Democrats) lost their vote that day. A number that would have pushed Al Gore over the top.

The same thing is being done in Florida today. However, this time it’s not about felons, it’s about citizenship “eligibility”.

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) has directed his administration to purge the state’s voting rolls of thousands of registered voters prior to the November election. But his list, which purports to include only “non-citizens,” targets mostly Democrats and Hispanics and, as ThinkProgresshasdocumented, may disenfranchise hundreds of citizens who are eligible to vote.

The story of a sitting governor of a state with a history of presidential election shenanigansknowingly purging his own, eligible constituents from the voter rolls is the definition of major news, and yet remarkably, in the first five months of the year, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today have published a total of zero articles about Scott’s actions. The New York Times did slightly better, printing one story on page 16 of the Friday, May 18th edition. The article ran under the credulous headline: “Florida Steps Up Effort Against Illegal Voters.”

Florida’s local newspapers, led by The Miami Herald, have been far more diligent in reporting the governor’s effort to disenfranchise eligible voters. While it may be easy to dismiss this as local fare, the implications of Scott’s purge could potentially swing the presidential election come November. Remember, months before anyone had ever heard of hanging chads, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (R) conducted a similar cleansing of the voter rolls in 2000, which resulted in thousands of eligible voters being knocked off the rolls in time for the infamous Gore v. Bush election.